Help with building a new computer

I am trying to assemble a decent gaming rig in the lowest possible budget (~$600). I have tried to think of some of the components I think that might be good. Any advice on the components would be much appreciated. I am not looking for the most powerful system but one on which I can think about playing most of todays games. Please provide any suggestions on deals or other components which might drive the price of the system down.

I agree with Nickc... that Corsair is a great deal better, but the sale ends soon.

Altogether you picked a good rig... You can save some money by getting memory from www.directron.com or www.zipzoomfly.com... Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, Infineon, and others are as good as OCZ and a whole lot cheaper.

My observation,
Try to obtain all parts from the same place.
Best if Motherboard and cpu are installed by a technicon.
Don't you have computer stores where you live to quickly get an exchange ?
Post where you live please.
$600 night buy the above,but you need more then that to complete it.
$ 1000 is more likely.

You have to be carefull these days to get compatible devices.This link should
have this kind of suggestions to match.With the arrival of Vista you have to be
more carefull if your installing Vista and if it has Vista drivers.
The only good thing i've seen about Vista is it's selling here for about 1/2
of what XP was and still is.Wonder why ?
I'd like to add a suggestion for building a new computer.
Start with the minimum needed to get the OS installed and then do a
Windows update,Then add the rest 1 at a time.Tell Windows No Thanks,
I have the drivers.I hope you do anyway.
Please reply with your decisions :rolleyes:

The only good thing i've seen about Vista is it's selling here for about 1/2 of what XP was and still is.Wonder why ?

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This is wrong. Look at the prices yourself:

[Edited: I linked to products that showed Vista was more expensive than XP, but I didn't research it well. Zipperman is right. I do have an explanation though - XP Retail isn't being distributed any longer. XP is still in demand for business who can't make the switch and people like Zipperman who don't trust Vista. Supply and demand.]

And no, it isn't fair to compare the Vista Home Basic OS to XP Home, if that's what you're doing, because XP Home doesn't have a 'crippled up' counterpart. XP Home is closest to Vista Home Premium, because of this. Since there is only Home (low end) and pro (high end), it would also be unfair to compare XP Professional against anything other than Vista Ultimate.

With the arrival of Vista you have to be
more carefull if your installing Vista and if it has Vista drivers.

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Huh? Can you link to any motherboard, video card, sound card, hard drive, DVD burner, network card, drive controller OR chipset that is not compatible with Windows Vista and is less than 2 years old? Best of luck. He isn't going to be buying 5 year old parts.

Start with the minimum needed to get the OS installed

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I can agree with doing the 'barebones' install to rule out issues, but moreso to verify the hardware works. Once you get it to POST (On and running), then turn it off, throw in all your other parts and install Windows on it. I don't really think there is a need to do this with the software side of things - everything works pretty well together, these days.

@bhargavnat, not sure if you've bought the parts already, but the E7200 will save you some cash and OC easily to give you the performance of an E8400. You can use the extra cash towards a better video card or a CPU cooler or something else. That being said, the Radeon HD 4850 is a better card to get than the 8800GTS.

Quoteing :
This is wrong. Look at the prices yourself:
You look,i already did.Do you need written proof ?
I guess things are cheaper up in Canada.
I still have a warranted XP Home and see no point in makeing it
a coaster.

Quoteing :
This is wrong. Look at the prices yourself:
You look,i already did.Do you need written proof ?
I guess things are cheaper up in Canada.
I still have a warranted XP Home and see no point in makeing it
a coaster.

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Vista Basic costs less than XP Home in Australia, and Vista Home Premium is roughly the same price depending on where you get it from. So uhm, maybe you live in the only place in world where the prices are different. =P

@bhargavnat, not sure if you've bought the parts already, but the E7200 will save you some cash and OC easily to give you the performance of an E8400.

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Rage, Does it matter that this is a 1066 FSB chip, not 1333Mhz ?
I agree about the overclock.
I've tracked this CPU's compatibility with a couple of boards by Gigabyte, and they're showing that it does require a BIOS update, (beyond the E8400)!
Not everybody is as lazy and paranoid about BIOS updates as myself, but I just thought I'd mention it. A part can't possibly be too plug and play for me.

The FSB won't matter as much as the cache will. Games are sensitive to cache size, so the E8400 does have an advantage there. But the E7200, once overclocked, can give performance about equal to a stock E8400. Once OC'd though, the E8400 is the fastest there is, barring the E8500.

Vista Basic costs less than XP Home in Australia, and Vista Home Premium is roughly the same price depending on where you get it from. So uhm, maybe you live in the only place in world where the prices are different. =P

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I am speaking for what i can do.You can do the same a little nicer.
I Can't shop where you shop,only Canada.
This is Future Shop prices.Check there for more if their the wrong versions.
Tossed in $99 for comments.lol

Gflo, u will be proud of that graphics card. as for the over clocking, I can not give an answer as I have never had any experience with one but if u cover clock with RivaTuner v2.06 I bet u can find out pretty fast. be sure to test any over clock with 3Dmark06_v110_installer. I think u can find the program with a Google search.